As the pair began making sales, things took an unexpected turn. Through a networking event, Ranaivo met a Temecula marketing consultant with spice industry connections. He joined the team as a mentor and liaison to potential buyers. Soon after, one of the mentor’s former business associates said “he was interested in all the vanilla we could supply” for distribution to ice cream manufacturers and grocery stores, Sanusi says. The deal could be worth millions, he adds.
Working with Ranaivo’s aunt, the company also secured exclusive rights to sell her cocoa beans in North America.
Sanusi serves as Madagascar Savors’ chief cocoa ambassador, cold-calling U.S. candy manufacturers. “There’s a lot of untapped potential in America, and I see us being a very big player in the industry. Our goal for the next two to five years is to sell 75 tons of cocoa beans a month.”
In the meantime, Sanusi hopes to enroll in UCI’s Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship program to help “build the relationships and knowledge necessary to grow and manage a global company. … UCI has taught me how to think globally and that everything in the world is interdependent.”
Sanusi’s pursuit of higher education has been aided by two philanthropic scholarships: the 2021 David Rosten International and Community Service Scholarship and the 2020 Beall Applied Innovation Creativity & Innovation Scholarship.
Sanusi is one of many UCI students grateful for such philanthropic support. The awards partly cover university expenses and enable recipients to take part in activities that enrich their college experience and increase their success after graduating. UCI offers nearly 1,000 scholarships funded by generous donors, giving students more than $4 million in academic aid.